Leah Hester - Yoga, Inspiration and Finding Peace in Life

Leah Hester, a yoga teacher and influencer, joins the Native Yoga Toddcast to discuss her journey with yoga and how it has helped her find peace and improve her life. She shares her experiences living in different places, including Costa Rica and Guatemala, and how yoga has been a constant in her life during these transitions. Leah emphasizes the importance of self-love and self-care, and how it allows us to show up for others and spread kindness.

Follow Leah on her Instagram at @iamleahhester
Also on her YouTube channel @leahhester
You can contact her via email at iamleahhester@gmail.com

Key Takeaways:

• Yoga is a whole lifestyle that goes beyond just the physical practice.
• The practice of yoga helps us come back to ourselves and find peace within.
• It's important to be open-minded and willing to change our beliefs when new information comes our way.
• Kindness and empathy can go a long way in creating a more peaceful world.

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Transcript

0:33

Welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast. So happy you are here. My goal with this channel is to bring inspirational speakers to the mic in the field of yoga, massage bodywork and beyond. Follow us @nativeyoga, and check us out at nativeyogacenter.com. All right, let's begin. Welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast. So happy that you're here. If it's your first time listening, welcome to the show. For those of you that are longtime listeners, thanks so much for your support. If you'd like to support the show, there's a link below. Click it. And every little bit of support is greatly appreciated. This week, I have the pleasure of bringing Leah Hester on to the podcast. Leah joins me here in studio for a discussion about yoga and how she has applied yoga to her life to help improve it and create more peace. And to communicate effectively. Follow Leah on her Instagram, which is at@IamLeahHestor. Follow her on her YouTube, which is at@LeahHestor. And then also you can send her an email via Gmail, which is IamLeahhestor@gmail.com Those links are in the description below. And for those of you that enjoy digital marketing at the end of the podcast, I went ahead and recorded another little additional segment, which is being played at the end of the closing show music. So if that's something that interests you, I wanted to ask her a couple of in depth questions regarding her strategy. So you can stay all the way to the end and check it out. All right, thanks so much. Let's go ahead and get get started. I'm so excited to have Leah Hestor here with me today in studio. And Leah, thank you so much for joining me taking time out of your day. How are you feeling today? Thank you for having me. I am grateful to be here. I'm feeling really good. Yeah. What has been happening for you lately where I know you're visiting here in Florida. Can you tell me a little bit about what where you are currently in your life in relation to what are you up to these days here in Juneau? Yeah. So primarily came here from Costa Rica, to just stop and pause in my travels and in life really just take like a deep inhale and exhale, and many more to come to redirect my goals and my priorities and really hone down on where I want to set up a home base and what direction I want to take, you know, all the yogic experience and experience teaching yoga that I have accumulated over the past few years. So very cool. Where did you grow up? I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, in a little suburb about 20 miles north of the city. Oh, cool. What suburb I don't know Chicago really well, but I have people that come here that are from there. So I'm curious what what area or what suburb? It's called Highland Park. Cool. Nice. I just had somebody practicing today from Springfield, Illinois. Closed. I believe that's the capital. Yeah, I should know that. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's obvious. I would think Chicago. Chicago would be the capital of Illinois. Right. But it's not Yeah, obviously. Yeah. Got it. And then how long were you living in Costa Rica? I was just there for three months. Cool. Yeah. Nice. What part? I was in Dominica. Well, so it's more south than the Osa Peninsula. Cool. What did you think? Did you enjoy it? I love Costa Rica. It the slow pace of life and the sweetness of the local tea goes in the tea guys and the vast amount of yoga and yoga community is amazing. Nice. Great time. Cool. What was your first introduction to yoga? My first introduction to yoga actually began with philosophy. I went to college for one short year. One B For a short year, but I studied philosophy that year. And that kind of led me into being curious about yogic philosophy. And so I started reading into that I developed a meditation practice. And then shortly after, did my yoga teacher training. Cool. What was the text that you first started to read in relation to yoga philosophy? Hmm, that's a good question that goes so far back. I think the first texts that I truly read in and outs was the Yoga Sutras. Yeah. Cool. That's awesome. That's that's a classic kind of first entry level book. Yeah. What were your thoughts? Do you remember when you first read it? What your first reaction to it was? Was it like something that you felt was easily too easy to understand? Or was it something that you're reading going on? What is why? What are we talking about here? Like, yeah, yeah. I immediately loved it, and resonated with it. There were a few passages, of course, a few sutures that I had to reread, sometimes more than twice like to really grasp and digest it. But ultimately reading through it for me, it was like enjoyable. Cool. Nice. Did you when you did your yoga teacher training, it was at a studio in Chicago, or in Illinois, sorry, actually, after I went to college in San Diego for that one year. And then when I left school, I stayed there. So before Costa Rica up until Costa Rica, so just up until about six months ago, I was living in San Diego. Cool. That was really what feels like home to me. And yeah, that's I did my yoga teacher training at a cool studio. They're called trilogy in La Jolla. Great. My wife and I used to live in San Diego as well. It's such a fun city. Yeah. And did you live in La Jolla? Or did you commute to go to La Jolla for the training? Yeah, I did live in La Jolla for about a year. After that, I moved to North County. So I by Encinitas and did my yoga teacher training when I was living in Encinitas. It's about a 20 minute drive south but it was beautiful down the 1010. My gosh, down in the morning, yes, right. Like Encinitas. locadia. Del Mar. So we go a little bit south of Del Mar on the way to La Jolla at Torrey Pines. Did you go to black speech at all? Did you ever go Yeah, I love black speech. Isn't that amazing? I mean, I know some people would make fun of me cuz I'd love to go surfing there if there was like, oh, Todd, the nudist beach. Like, I'm like, trust me. You know, like, I'm not going there for that. And that trail that goat trail that goes down. Did you climbed on that? Quite an adventure. My surfboard. There we go. Nice. So you do surf? Yeah. Awesome. My biggest one of my biggest passions. Nice. Cool. So obviously growing up in Illinois, that wasn't where you started to surf, I'm guessing. And so then when you went to San Diego, that's where you start picking it up. Yep. Yep. Cool. Very cool. When you did your yoga teacher training, what was the emphasis? Was it like a broad spectrum covering different styles and techniques? Or was it focused on a specific sort of technique or approach? The training was mainly vinyasa, Hatha vinyasa, we dabbled in the breath work in prenatal yoga. Philosophy, our VEDA? So we got a lot of exposure, like a little nibble of a lot of different categories. Nice. What teaching opportunities have you had, how long ago was that? How many years ago? Was it the time that you're in San Diego to hear? Yeah, that was not this summer. But the last so I was in San Diego just five, six months ago. Gotcha. Serega. And, yeah, so just about over a year ago, around a year and a half ago. Was my yoga teacher training. Yeah, and it was a two it was a one month immersion so it was every day from like 8am to 5pm Nice. Very cool. That's that's solid. Yeah, yeah. Are you currently teaching right now? I actually just started a YouTube channel. I haven't posted my flows yet but I have them recorded. So I'm in the editing process. It's been really fun. So right now only teaching digitally Yeah, and really missing teaching in person. Yeah. What, um, what did the How did you kind of first start teaching digitally? Like, was it more like? So the timeframe makes me think this is all kind of post pandemic not? Not like born out of necessity, like everything shut, and now I can't like teach or be in a studio. But do you find that you've gravitated toward virtual teaching out of just ease or I'm a lot older than you, I didn't grow up with, like, you know, phones and technology and computers. So for me, it was a, it was a challenge to like, start to feel comfortable with integrating all this sort of technology and with teaching, but is that something that you feel like comes natural to you? Or was just like a piece of cake and have to think about it? That's a good question that there's a lot to unravel there, I'd say there's a certain energy of physically being with your students that I love, and I think can never truly be replaced. But the essence of it can't be replaced virtually. However, I do believe that. In the world we live in with all of the access, easy access to virtual studios and YouTube, that's a free platform, that there's so much abundance there, and that you can take advantage of these platforms and you know, share your teaching skills. So I found it to be pretty breezy transitioning to online. I think what is so appealing about making YouTube flows and meditations is just that it's accessible to everyone. Yeah, I believe that Yoga should be accessible to me. Yeah, agreed. I love you tube. Like I was struggling with the thought of trying to get going on it, because it just seemed a little bit more daunting. You know, like with social media, you can take a picture, and or just write something brief. And then boom, like, it's done, right. Whereas YouTube, there's a lot more like tech involved, and all the search engine fill out, like all the stuff that you can fill out when you actually post your video is pretty. It's very, like, there's a lot to it. But now that I'm like working with it, like I'm so at the very beginning stages, right, but I really like it. Like, I think it's an amazing platform. Pretty cool. So I'm glad to hear that you're, you're feeling it. You're getting excited about it. Yeah. What, um, what do you what do you feel like yoga has helped you with in your life? Yoga has helped me with so much, especially the past few months of transitioning, and you know, being in a space, close to family that I haven't been in for an extended period of time since I was 1718 years old. So it's really just helped me that no matter where I've been traveling and bouncing around the last few months of life, just come back to myself. Yeah. And just realize that home is, you know, in the mind. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. Are you? Can you tell me a little bit about Noah recently, I saw that you were in Guatemala. Can you tell me a little bit about what your experience was like down there? Yeah. So I was traveling to Guatemala, it would have been my it was my second time there. I had gone to Lake Atitlan for a border run when I was living in Costa Rica. So you only stay in Costa Rica or four different country for a period of three months. And if you're not a citizen, and you have to cross the border every three months to just show that you went to a different country in that so you're not like residing there. Yes. And I went to Guatemala for a border run I loved like auto lawn. And then I saw an opportunity come up to co host a yoga retreat there again, just in October, this last month. And yeah, I went to Guatemala, everything was all good. We were set to host this yoga retreat. And then a day after I got there, about a week, five days before their treaties were meant to arrive. There was political conflict, conflict in Guatemala, Guatemala City. And it was actually really beautiful for the country of Guatemala. It was peaceful protests, so no violence, nothing wild to my knowledge. And I think the people of Guatemala were really happy to execute that finally, and express themselves in that peaceful protest. But what it did is it didn't allow people to travel from the airport to the lake it's about a three hour drive via car. Oh, wow. Wow, I had to cancel leveraging Oh man. So everybody that everybody that already booked their plane tickets and already signed up and everything at all had to had to turn around. Yeah. Oh man challenging. Yeah, I know someone else was recently hosting a retreat down there. And yeah, just raved about how beautiful it was there. But that is interesting. The element of going somewhere into a different country and just thinking like, hopefully this will be easy like it like it seems like it might be here. And then you have that that challenge. That's, that's pretty wild. Yeah. So you didn't stay. So it's like, now it's time to leave? Yeah, I had this. It was just an intuition. It was a feeling I had in my stomach of I should probably get out of the country, even though by the lake. There were no protests. Where I where I was. Yet, but yeah, I just felt the feeling of I should probably get out of the country gracefully before there is potentially violence because you ever know with peaceful protests. So leaning on the side of caution, which, in my adolescent life, I didn't do much. Yeah, I took it into my own hands to Yeah, I booked a tiny little two seater plane to get to to Guatemala City, and Oh, wow. Yeah. Deeply and peacefully. Yeah. Smart move. And what was it about politics? He said, Just political parties arguing? Yeah. Political. Yeah, I believe the President got it off to research that I'm unaware, I have been paying attention to the news, because I don't want to live under my little bubble or my little yoga bubble completely. But I have not come across the news of what's happened in Guatemala. So thanks for alerting me, I'll check out what's going on. What do you think? Where do you think yoga plays in the role of like, the future of humanity and the planet? I know, that's a little bit of a big question. But often, I I keep asking myself, like, how come we can all just get along? Yeah. And I know, that's, you know, obviously, someone's gonna say, What's such a naive, you know, perspective, there's been war, there's been fighting ever since time immemorial, the beginning of humanity. I just don't understand why, why that has to be what are your thoughts? I believe that the practice of yoga is a whole lifestyle. It's not just, you know, the asana that a lot of people attend class for, which is absolutely lovely. And, of course, on the eighth limb path, and I think it's an amazing way to move energy throughout the body and prepare us for meditation. But when it comes to really embodying yoga, it's, it's being the yoga, it's being the yoga and doing the yoga showing up for ourselves so that we can all get along because when we love ourselves and can get along with ourselves, that's when we can, you know, flow harmlessly, and seamlessly with others. Yeah. Good point. I sometimes wonder if, like, do you think it's possible for there to actually be complete peace on the planet? Like, I mean, honestly, like, I mean, I know it's these are tough questions. I don't really have a great answer for this. But you know, I often try to imagine like, What if everybody actually just didn't fight? Like the whole at the same time the whole planet there was just no. Arguing there was no like seeing things as separate like you believe what you believe in, I believe, I believe in that somehow clashes even though oftentimes, it seems like a lot of the things that we believe are the same thing. You know what I mean? Like we're both arguing about the same thing, we just can't see that we're kind of headed in the same direction. I just wonder if it's ever going to be possible or if like existence on planet Earth will just mean that there will be conflict. I mean, when I think about like, say Buddha teachings and you know, Buddha coming right out straight up front, like life is suffering. Right? There's this first thing of like, Look, if you're going to be on planet Earth, this is what you have to deal with. This is just a part of it. I guess. I think I'm probably extremely naive, but I always have thought it would be amazing if somehow we could have a planet where we didn't fight. But then if someone comes in to my house and like hurts my family, right? Like my children, my wife Yeah. Who that's just so tough. Right? Because we hear about the turn your other cheek idea, right? Like Someone inflicts violence turn your cheek and let them hit again, right. Like from the hem suicide. Yeah, but it just I don't know. I mean, I, I almost get a little nervous even like bringing these questions up, because it's like, kind of intense to fully think about what do you think? Yeah, that's a deep one. I believe that we cannot control of course, what we can't control. Yeah. And so in terms of everyone, and all the people being born and all the people, you know, exiting this this human life? Yeah. That there will always be conflict. Yeah, whether that's super tiny or grand. Yeah. I don't believe that that conflict always has to be in suffering. But do you mean like, it could be more of a debate? Like an intellectual debate? I like that. Yeah. Like, for example, Guatemala, they peacefully protests instead of going straight for the violence. Yeah. Or? Yeah. In many such cases. But yeah, when it comes to something so outside of our own control, like, the entire, you know, yeah, planet, getting along perfectly. Yeah. That would be awesome. But I believe also ancestrally. Like, if you look back to caveman days, like, you know, the, the men, they, they went at it, yeah, for whatever, maybe it was for a woman or for food or for or if we watch nature, and we observe, you know, animals and the hunt. Like, I don't know, whenever I see that, though, that seems more about survival, and an understanding of the circle of life. You know, like, whenever I think about. Sometimes I'll watch documentaries, and, you know, animal wildlife documentaries. And they'll show like, say, this group of monkeys over here, and that group of monkeys and they'll have some sort of, they'll come together and like, maybe this group over here has the fruit trees that they're protecting, and they like, and this other group will come in, and there'll be some sort of low conflict, but there's like this understanding like the conflict is necessary, but it also is done in a way that seems so different to the way that it's done nowadays. I don't know. I do. Do you ever? Do you ever? How do you view humans as animals or as something outside and better and beyond the animal kingdom? It's so true. Going back because my first thought when you just said that? is I feel like okay, a squirrel battling a squirrel, or, or whatever. And for the nuts. It's like, there's almost no ego involved. Like you said, it's survival like they just want to eat. Yeah, so it's not like they're battling for the sake of I'm a better squirrel than you. And here's why. It's just for I'm hungry. Do we have those? Yeah. Yeah. As with a more evolved species like us? Yeah. The mind gets gets going in the mind comes into play. And it's like, the egoic mind is always going to want to be right. Yeah. Good point, you know, like, and there's this idea. If you believe in reincarnation, that maybe you went from here, up to here, and there's been this like, you know, process. I guess this really just depends on if someone believes or if I believe you believe in that sort of dynamic, but I think like, if we're, from the human perspective, such a much more evolved species, and there is such a thing as reincarnation, I kinda would like to come back as an animal. I'd like to come back as a dolphin to be honest. Yeah, my spirit. That's my, I would like to come back as a dolphin. I don't know, I think I'd rather not have the thinking mind that I have as a human. I think it'd be great to actually be, especially in the water. I saw this incredible photo, my daughter thought it had to be photoshopped. But there was someone dropping it on a wave doing a big bottom turn, and a dolphin jumped out of the water at the same time, but the way they were shadowed, it kind of just was this really cool, like both species riding the same wave type of thing. And I was like, Oh my gosh, it's so amazing, right? I mean, I don't know that I should like I like do you think it's silly to actually wish to be an animal versus a human? I mean, because obviously we have a lot of potential. So what what type of things do you think about in relation to human potential and do kind of explore in relation to your own practice? I think being human is the spiritual path. Because we get to feel every emotion on the spectrum, you know, from sadness, to pleasure, and everything in between. And I think that is a spiritual experience in itself. And being able to feel these feelings and have the thoughts that we have and work through them and code them and get to know ourselves in this lifetime. Yeah, good. Good. Good point. What are your so like, recently, you know, how Guiana Mudra, where you touch your thumb and index fingertip together, and that's like the symbol of intelligence. And so obviously, if you have like a peace sign, like you could make a hand gesture, right, and so we have mood drugs, and we can make hand gestures that reflect a certain concept. And therefore, if I take piano Mudra, I might think, Okay, I'm going to make my hands in a symbol of intelligence. Therefore, I'd like to invite intelligence into my life and my experience. And I'll make a joke every now and again, about like, all you have to do is make the symbol of intelligence and you're intelligent, right? But obviously, it's not that simple. But today, I was thinking we should I don't know if like, I don't know if you want to join on my crusade. But like, if we taught everybody down a mudra, and got everybody just doing that, and focusing on intelligence, maybe that would somehow bring a little more intelligence into the world. What could it could it? Could it be that simple? Honestly, I think yes. Right. I think it doesn't seem like it could be that simple. Yeah, a lot of things that we humans overcomplicate, don't need to be over complicated. And they truly are simple. Because if you believe that you are divinely favored, or you believe that you are healthy, you believe that you are worthy of whatever you are desiring to accomplish, then that's the only way that it's going to become a reality. Yeah. Can you think of a conflict you've had recently, and explain a way that you applied your yoga practice and philosophy to help resolve that conflict? Yeah, definitely. A few come to mind. With a lot of new people I've been around lately, including some romantic partners partner, I should say, single, not multiple. There have always been times of, you know, debate, or not even conflict, just just debate. I'm definitely the type of person who is very, very open minded. But if something is working for me in the moment, and making me feel good, and I love it, I'm going to stick behind it. until something else comes around that I try that might debunk my whole entire way of thinking, which is fine, it's beautiful. But yeah, I've been getting into debate with some family and my romantic partner about certain few things. And in those times, you can let things escalate and just like keep, you know, expressing your opinion, your ideas onto one another and, but towards the end, so I always incorporate my practice and just say, hey, let's, let's revisit this. Like, let's take like 10 minutes, 20 minutes, maybe the evening and just come back. Because odds are when we come back, it's not gonna matter. Yeah. Goodbye. Nice wine. Good quiet. When I follow you on Instagram, those of you listening watching definitely check Leah out at I am Lea Huster. And recently, I've noticed that you have been utilizing which like, I'm trying to learn everything right. So like, I appreciate that you're kind of using some of the features that I didn't even know it existed, like the community thing, like there's like a community what does that call there's like you can create a channel like a broadcast channel. So you've been recording or recently recorded an audio piece that then just popped up in my inbox inbox. Thank you. messages. And thank you. Yes. And it was just really nice. Like you gave a couple of like, tidbits of information and or advice for or, like creating and creating new energy. And I feel like you've been, you know, actively putting information out there, which I've really appreciated and enjoyed. Can you talk a little bit about that particular message? Or what is your? What do you? What is your creative process? When you're thinking I want to put something out there? Right? How do you? How do you tap into that? Is it something like you'll wait to have a moment of inspiration? And then attempt to voice it in a way that people you think people will be open to hearing? Or Are you coordinating? Like, are you sitting down and strategizing and writing? And I'm gonna say this, I'm going to say that? What is your creative process when you're creating? That's a really good question. And thank you, I'm glad that you appreciate the words and the writings that I put out. It means a lot. I just share authentically, truly, if something comes to me that day, or I learn a lesson from an experience that I just had in life that will later turn into wisdom. I feel why not share that? Yeah, why wouldn't I share? We're all so much more alike than we are different. And even if my experience is completely different from yours, it may tie together into a similar lesson or a similar teaching. Yeah, good point. Yes. Yeah. Where are you getting most of your inspiration from lately? Are you? Is it a particular individual? Is it through the experience of? Well, it sounds like your Guatemala retreat? Wasn't maybe the learning lesson you hoped for? Or planned for? But is it like that retreat setting? Or what do you what are you finding that? Are you when you do have a ritual each day that you go to to try to get inspired? Yeah, definitely. So like the Guatemala situation, it's like, of course, I didn't have a ton of expectations going into it. But in my mind, I was going to host a yoga retreat and gain that experience and learn, but I trust and my irrationally optimistic self just knows that. The experience I did get, and the lessons I did learn were exactly what I needed. Yeah. So yeah, I've been pulling a lot of that inspiration from life experience. lately. I feel like I've been Go, go, go. And this Florida, time has been a nice, nice little pause and breath. But aside from that, I've definitely just been getting a handful of experience that, yeah, you know, 18 year old me could have dreamed of or did dream of living it. And so with the World Wide Web that we have, like we talked about, it's like, share, share, if I can help one person that day, or inspire one person or put a smile on someone's face, then like, that's amazing. That's cool. When you look back on your 18 year old self, did you was it? Did you know what you wanted to do? Did you struggle with that whole transition of you know, obviously, we get a lot of pressure from our family to like, there's a vision for us, that would be us being successful. And there's like, you know, either following what they see as that success pattern, then sometimes there's this like, I want to do me, and that's often at odds with our families. Did you? Do you have a very like, did your family say go for it? Just go out live life? Love it, do whatever you want to do? Or was there? Did you have a little bit of that? Oh, no, Leah, what are you going to do? Like, I mean, how are you going to survive? How are you going to pay the bills, that type of thing? Yeah, I knew right away, that I would love college for the reasons that I would love it and not for the education that I would be learning. I just knew that because towards the end of high school, I question everything I got into reading like books about emotional intelligence and self help, and all those things from as early as the age of 16. So by the time high school ended, and I had already done a lot of partying, and a lot of dating older boys and just experiencing the college world, prior to me even going to college, so I knew that me going to college was to experiment. Yeah. And so When I came out to San Diego for school, my prediction was exactly correct. And maybe I wrote my own fate with that one, but are co-created. But yeah, I wasn't going to class. And I only lasted a year. And I think that that's exactly what I needed. I just needed that one year. So after that year of dropping out, yeah, my family was definitely thrown off at first because I have three older brothers who all graduated college. And so I was the last one. And I just said, this isn't for me, guys. I'm going out into the world. And yeah, I'm staying in San Diego, because I love it here. And I love to surf. And yeah, they ended up supporting me because they believed in me, that's awesome. That's cool. I sorry. I had a similar type of experience, where my parents were like, Todd, you have to go to school. If you don't, you'll just be working a job that you won't feel fulfilled with and, and I went to college for a year, and I realized this is not for me. And I just kind of went off and started traveling. But I was willing to work really hard. So I had to, you know, kind of work really hard to pull it off. But I had such an interesting question for my son yesterday, who's 17 and like finishing, he's a junior, he's finishing up school. And he's loving surfin. So he's surfing every single day. And, and, you know, I, my experience was I traveled to, I ended up moving to Australia, and I emigrated to Australia and spent five years there. And so he's like, looking at it going, Well, Dad, did you enjoy that like going surfing and just going and doing your thing? And I'm coming at it now from this, like, parental side of like, yes. And I want you to do everything you love. Like, I really want you to, like, pursue your dreams, like, because that's a big thing. And I'm really personally really glad I went and traveled when I was young. And I didn't have a lot of responsibility, because I got to see the world and be challenged by that. But from the parental side, it's so challenging, because you just want our we want our children to be happy. Yeah. And to like, have as little stress. We know there's going to be struggle. Like we know, there's going to be challenges like, but we just want it to be a little easier for them somehow. So I was just found myself last night going. How do I answer this question? So it's, I'm happy to hear that you're kind of pursuing your path of what do I What makes me happy? What do I really truly want to do? So you made mention that like, while you're here in Florida, you're figuring that out? Yeah. And it took me a long time to figure it out. Right. Like, I mean, I think we kind of are constantly trying to figure it out. Yeah, I can't say I even figured out like, I don't think I figured it out now. Right? Like, I'm still wondering, What am I going to do next? Right, like, so. But I'm, I'm happy to hear that. That's cool. What other insights are you gaining? Or do you have any fears? Like, where are you at right now? Are you? Is it easy for you to navigate right now? Or are you having some fears come in what's happening for you? I think life at this point in time, me sitting here, I just turned 24. And I can confidently say that I believe life is a never ending series of figuring it out. Yeah. And the challenges are, and the goals that we have for ourselves and that we get to overcome is what makes life fun. Because an easy life would be boring. True. And easy. Life. Boring. Really boring, right? It was too easy. You have no motivation right now. There's nothing to push you and kind of light your kit. Yeah. Good point. Yeah. So to have to be able to be a human and have these like, in depth realizations of, well, towards what end? And is this making me happy? And am I content doing this? And yeah, like one of my favorite quotes is a rich man works his whole life to retire, like a poor man by the sea. And a classic one class a Yeah. And it just that just, you know, it hits home for me. Yeah, because all I want to do right now is of course work hard and have these goals and these visions and go after everything that I know I'm capable of, which is the beautiful process. But yeah, it's of course, to towards what end is question? Yeah, it's to be with loved ones and in a village by the sea. There you go. Right. Yeah, good point. Yeah. It's a funny paradox isn't it is the end amount of work we put forward to try to prepare for a date in the future. But man, not working, and not saving for the future. didn't really feel good to me either. At some point, you know what I mean? Like I hit this point, personally, where I was like, I'm always going to be six steps behind on my bills, you know what I mean? And my car is always breaking down. And I'm like, trying to keep it rolling. Which really caused me to have to, like, get serious, a little more serious, I guess, which is a good thing. I'm very thankful. Have you have you had any this sort of, dude, I mean, like, I just so for me, it's just so hard to do that. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, it's such for me, it's a paradox because it's like, I we live right by the beach right now. It's so beautiful, right? It's also like, really expensive to live here in Palm Beach County. Like, oh my gosh, like sometimes feeling like, I'm on the hamster wheel. Yeah, not even knowing to what end like, where's this gonna? Gonna leave? So I don't know. Lately, I've been definitely like in relation to say, what will happen with say, the world economy, right, like we can put into it, hoping that we'll have something later on down the track. But then I remind myself, there's a chance Todd, it might not even be there. Right? Like, kind of like the same way like with the whole FTX thing with the cryptocurrency like, like, that's a huge scam, right? Like, it's crazy. The amount of money that people put in all of a sudden, boom, it's gone. Right? So like the amount of work that can be done, it's just disappear in a moment's notice. Anyway. So that whole element of trying to like, just be like, Okay, I'm already I've already I've already made it. Right? Yeah, I've already made it. I'm already at the says the wealthiest I'll ever be. This is the happiest I'll ever be. Oh, I don't know. It's just not that simple. I know. Do you feel that too? Yeah. That's kind of the space that I've kind of been in. Lately of. Before I left for Costa Rica. I had my own business and was in a really long four year relationship with at the time a man who I envisioned a really long future with and yeah, all of that. Ended. Willingly. And I left for Costa Rica. And now I'm in a space of re rebuilding. Yeah. But then yeah, you go back and you're like, but I just am right now. And where I am, is okay. Yeah. And you just need to accept that. And that life is just a cycle of like, You do one thing, you accomplish it, you take that experience, and you put it into the next Yeah. Everything is temporary. And I think that's a mantra that helps me a lot in just being okay with things. Yeah. And of course, not lessening motivation or dimming any goals. No, it it only fuels them because nothing's temporary. So try everything, you know, take the risk. Yeah. Yeah. Good advice. Yeah. You see, it's permanent. Everything's temporary. True. I agree. Good answer. Yeah. That's cool. Do you so I noticed when I go to your Instagram page, and then I go to your link tree, and like you have different maybe companies that you represent and or products that you attempt to market and sell? Yes, yeah. Does that work? Yeah, yeah, that's definitely as like, like an influencer? air quote. Yeah. Cool. Definitely, always just try to partner with brands that I love and would promote. Either way. Yeah. Like the yoga mat brand that I work with. Oh, go living. It's organic and yoga mat with a tree rubber bottom grip. And I absolutely love it because I'm big on promoting natural fabrics and wearing natural fabrics. Because physical items hold energy in a natural fabric. There have been studies done that they have a higher frequency. So when you wear fabrics like cotton and linen and ones that came from the earth ham, will they're going to have a higher frequency than something like polyester. Yeah, or something that's synthetic like nylon, spandex, all the things. So yeah, for example, that company was a local Encinitas company, Southern California. Cool. So I was like, of course yeah, this is You know, definitely something I would love to authentically promote Nice. Did you reach out to them? Did you get creative and and send them a letter? Did you go into their shop in California? Did you have a connection? Like? Like, how would you recommend if if say, I'm going cool, I want to, I want to try to connect with a company and help promote them. What is your advice in relation to spring that on? Gratefully and easily most of the brands that I've worked with have come to me. And then from there, you know, I had to look them up, look into them and see if it was something that I was passionate about and wanted to promote. And it's cool. So the ones that I am promoting are all ones that are things that I would recommend to almost everyone and nice. Nice. That's cool. Awesome. Are you familiar with the company Patagonia? I am very familiar with how they've used free rubber AND, and OR you LAX to make wetsuits. Wow, yeah, they're trying to completely turn the whole neoprene rubber wetsuit thing to a sustainable you Lex rubber, which is some sap or type of natural, more natural material, which is pretty amazing. So I'm a huge fan of Patagonia. Yeah, yeah, what they're doing with that, but that's cool. Yeah, I heard you mentioned with the yoga mat that there's a like a like a tree rubber. You said tree rubber bottom. That's cool on the bottom, so it does have grip. And because it's cotton, it actually strengthens my practice, because I'm not so anchored to the floor through like a full rubber mat. Yeah. It doesn't slide at all, but it definitely strengthens your practice can stretch out like when you're a down dog, it feels like it's, you're sliding apart a little bit. So you have to use your strength to pull right and not slide out. that you normally wouldn't. Nice. Whoa, do you have a movement history background prior to yoga or when you got into yoga? Was that like your first movement practice? were you an athlete when you were younger? Did you do dance gymnastics? Any of that stuff? Yeah. I feel like a lot of Yogi's come from a dance background or Yeah, gymnastics background. The amazing, lovely woman who led my yoga teacher training who I learned so much from she's she's amazing. She's from Chicago, too. She started Gabrielle cool. Yeah, sure. Last name as well. Yeah, Gabrielle Blakely. Nice. Yeah. She's awesome. And so wise and beautiful. But she was a dancer. So I know like a lot of Yogi's who were previously dancers. But I was the opposite. I played like every sport under the sun. I was a complete tomboy. Growing up with three brothers. I played sports in high school as well, for my freshman and sophomore year. Before I went into my own things, but yeah, I played basketball soccer, my those two my whole life. I played lacrosse, I played hockey with boys. I figure skated gymnastics a little bit when I was a really young kid. What else softball? Wow, I yeah, I played a lot of sports. That's cool. What advice would you give somebody who thinks that yoga could not help their current sporting activity? Like sometimes people come in, they'll say, I really wish my husband or my wife would start doing yoga. They love to run bike, swim, surf, soccer, whatever other sport and they just think yoga is just they're just not into a Yeah. What type of advice would you offer? Somebody who might be listening? I bet you everybody listening is probably already likes yoga, but there's a chance? Maybe not. Yeah. What type of advice would you offer somebody who's like, How could yoga helped me if I'm a runner or a figure skater? Yeah, the physical postures Asana of yoga is so beneficial, I think for any movement, to just complement it because you're moving around energy in the body, and that makes space for anything else that you are incorporating. So if you're making space and stretching your limbs and moving the fascia within your body practicing yogasana, and then you translate that to a soccer field or a football field, you're going to have more mobility, and you're going to have that At both physical and energetic space in the body to let those movements and your other sports be more fluid. Nice. Yeah, good answer. What type of it for like, say personally after we're seeing, like what's happening in the world and a lot of like, you know, we're visually seeing violence and we're seeing violence, we're hearing about violence. We're hearing about strong opposition between who side? Who are going to support that type of thing? What type of advice or inspiration or motivation or just insight or thoughts do you have regarding how we could navigate this current challenging situation that we're seeing? Yeah. I believe it's important to educate yourself, if you're going to be involved within the politics or the news, if you're going to be involved, definitely educate yourself. And know that. Personally, I don't watch the news. I don't. I feel like nowadays, almost like with my generation, like you go on your social media, and you can find out everything that's happening on the news on social media. So just in a different way of it being portrayed. So it's interesting. Yeah, I try not to get too involved of things that are completely out of my control. And sometimes I believe it's best to if you're not super knowledgeable about a topic or the history to not have such a strong opinion. Yeah. And people will say, Alia, you should have a strong opinion, you should. But that's just what I believe. I don't believe that we have to be so hard headed and pick aside about something that who knows what we know about? Yeah. Yeah. That's a really good point. I heard someone say recently, that they were feeling really challenged by what they're watching within from from their cultural side. And someone who they really love and admire said, Look, I have a differing opinion. So I think we should change the subject. And so normally, that, to me sounds like a fairly responsible way to change the subject to like dance around a little bit, right? avoid conflict, like, but then when I saw how hurt the person was, and relaying that, that was the approach that was taken from their good friend. It made me think, okay, now if it were me and say, I were to come to you and say, you know, you would voice your opinion about while I'm really having this hard time with this, and I'm seeing it from the other side, that instead of me saying, look, let's just change our conversationally, because I don't think we're going to agree on this. Right? I could just be almost one step further, and just be like, I understand, and it's so hard. I'm so I'm sorry that you're having such a hard time. You know, because I don't know, I just think that that would be one way we could find that peaceful planet. Definitely. Because even then I'm still stepping back from feeling like I have to let you know that I don't agree with you. Right. And to say, even though I don't agree with you, maybe I don't, but I could just still let you know that. I'm, I'm sorry that you're having such a hard time. Does that make sense? Yeah. Don't you think that could be like, does that make me soft, though, that I'm not not just me. But anybody that would take this approach? Does that mean I'm, I'm just like, soft or I don't have an opinion. Or I'm a thin sitter, you know what I mean? Because I I'm proud to sit on the fence. Like, I'm proud of that. Like, I tried to sit on the fence, right? When somebody calls me a fence sitter, I'm like, thank you very much. Like, I'm working hard at this, you know, so and then there's this idea of like, you need to pick a side. You got to pick a team, right? Um, any thoughts there? Yeah. A lot. I think nature is filled with duality. There's duality in nature. We are nature itself, but when it comes to worldly things, and you refer to nature for maybe answers or inspiration. I believe that we need both types of people in the world and that's why there are both types of people and I think it's, there is power, and there's really good time. seems to be like, This is what I believe in. I'm going to tell everyone that crosses my path that this is what I believe in. Because the I mean, that's how leaders are armed guy being strong in their beliefs and preaching them to others. However, I also believe in Yeah, just there is a point to avoid conflict within our zooming in on our own very lives to just say, Yeah, I'm here for you. Yeah. And just be completely empathetic and open hearted and say, I feel you. Yeah. I don't agree with you. But I'm here for you. Yeah. Yep. Cool. Good answer. Yeah. Agreed. I think we could move a little closer to something a little more sweeter, nicer, kinder. That's cool. Yeah. Well, I'm so grateful for you to take some time out of your day. Is there anything else that you want to bring up and or that I did not bring up or would like to mention or share with our listeners before we come toward a conclusion here? Yeah, just going back and touching on? Because you asked a question. I don't know if I fully answered it about how would use tell people to kind of work through a time where the world is heavy like this. And what I would really say to that, and what works for me, personally is working on yourself, and your peace and your happiness and your sense of self. Because at the end of the day, when we can show up for ourselves, and love ourselves, that's the only way we can show up and love others. And that truly spreads like you don't know how many lives you influence or impact throughout the day, especially now with social media to but even just in person face to face flowing and going around, like kindness goes a long way. And it should never be looked past the power of a little loving kindness. So just keep that in your heart and know that we're all in this together. We are nice. Awesome, Leah. That's perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you. So nice to have you here. Native yoga podcast is produced by myself. The theme music is dreamed up by Bryce Allen. If you liked this show, let me know. If there's room for improvement. I want to hear that too. We are curious to know what you think and what you want more of what I can improve. And if you have ideas for future guests or topics, please send us your thoughts to info at Native yoga center. You can find us at Native yoga center.com. And hey, if you did like this episode, share it with your friends, rate it and review and join us next time. Well, yeah, thanks, Leah. Yeah, thank you. That's cool. I really appreciate it. I'm so happy that you came in. What are you going to do now? I'm so grateful. What do you have gone the rest of the day? Yeah, I'm gonna go home and continue working on editing some YouTube videos as create some more sequences to then record. That's awesome. That's cool. I saw I went and followed you on YouTube today. And I noticed that you have one video that you posted a couple shorts, but the one video you posted already have 3000 views on Oh yeah. Did you notice how do you haven't noticed that you haven't been like 25 I'm such a YouTube geek. I love it. It's so great. The analytics on it to be able to go back and see like how many seconds that people actually pay attention? How How much do the live videos how much like retention is there in terms of how long can you keep people's attention versus the recorded videos? The whole process of recording videos and the editing process and how to keep it where it's interesting I read a book recently by a guy with I can't remember the author's name but it was called it is called how to shoot video that doesn't suck I think that's what's called it's a really good because I was like I need to work on my video editing skills I want to work on like what's working he said, every time you watch TV, count how many seconds the camera on that one shot lasts. He's like no hardly ever goes longer than three seconds. So now when I'm watching a show whether it's commercial or whether it's any TV show, I'll go, I'll start counting one, two switch shot, one, two switches shot. So I guess like we're so like, I don't say add, but we're so like, the only way we'll actually stay watching a video is if it's like, boom, boom, something new, something different, which then when I started recording my videos, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is taking forever, because then I'm like, move my camera over here with my camera over here, every three seconds every four seconds. So then I'm like, Okay, well, let me try to film one thing with my camera here. film that for 30 minutes, then turn the camera over here, film the same thing for 30 minutes, put the 230 minute clips in the editor, and then try to three seconds cut, come down to this one, three seconds cut, and then chop it down, chop it down, pull from this angle. And I'm just like, it takes so long to edit a 10 minute video. So I've been like really lazy lately. And with my YouTube videos like for our conversation, it's just a one hour video. I don't chop, I don't change. I just like pluck it on there. Just like I'm just excited. That actually got something on there. It's a miracle that I got this far, right. But my pre edited stuff I've been having so much fun with. So it's cool. But I was like, Oh my gosh, she has one video got that many views. That's pretty impressive. So I don't know, if you plan that or not? Like, did you put a lot of time I didn't get a chance to watch the video. So I'm sorry, I will. And all I'm doing is studying the metrics before I even like pay attention to what the video has to say. But like, what are you finding with all that? Like, is it overwhelming? are you digging it? Are you like, what the heck? What is your thoughts? I'm digging it. I truly find joy and pleasure in video editing. Like I even love like the little reels that I make. And the YouTube was fun because that one of you got a chance to watch. It was just like a, it was a vlog of my Guatemala experience. So I kept it super raw and real and just put the clips and that I got before you know, I left I left the lake to get to the city because of the political strife. But yeah, I I have fun with it. That's cool. It will be nice to see it grow. Yeah, definitely. Because it's like a full time job editing. It is. Yeah. Are you at a point where you've contemplated hiring an editor and or navigating the cost of that and the validity for paying for it? Not yet. I definitely have some friends and mentors who have outsource their editing to various other people and pay people to edit their their vlogs and videos. But I'm not there yet, since I've only posted one. And I believe with my YouTube yoga flows and meditations and breath work. That will be less like chopping it up and just adding music and extra straight shots. Like just get it out there. Yeah, don't super real and authentic. You know? Yeah, that's cool. Teaching via the internet. Cool. What about Instagram? I know you're up around like the 31,000 follower mark, which is like hard to do. Maybe you don't think so? I've been on Instagram for like a long time. I have like a meme that I know, it's not about numbers. I know, it sounds very shallow to be like, Oh, you have this many numbers, I'll have this many numbers. And no, that means you know what I mean? Like, it's kind of a shallow metric to gauge humanity off of however, it's hard not to get excited about it. When you start actually trying it starts working and you gain. So do you have any advice for me? Or anybody how to get your Instagram to build? Yeah, definitely. Just like I expressed about the channels and the voice messages that I send in there. I also have a telegram by the way that people can join. But I saw that I saw on your link tree. It said join telegram and I'm not on telegram. So I clicked and I'm like, well, that's not gonna work. I'm not on there. But um, that helped, you know, so what I was saying is like, send voice messages in there too. And those just being super authentic. It's like do that with your content as well. Like we are all super similar and more alike than people may think. So instead of like worrying and creating false narratives in your mind of oh, I need to fit into this niche. Like if I love surfing, I'm only going to post about surfing or if I love holistic living I'm only gonna post about holistic living. It's like no like we're multi dimensional beings like I have so many passions, so many hobbies, so I just would post them authentically like about that. My travels and my move to Costa Rica and the holistic living that I do and the food that I eat and yoga as well, like I could only post yoga but that's not the only part of my life. Yeah, just pose all of the different realms in my life and yeah, cool broadens your audience. So yeah, post awesome